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How to Weave a Rope Table Runner

Love the look of hand-woven tapestries but don’t have a loom or weaving skills? Us too! So we created a weaving hack using cardboard as the frame, and found a simple way to weave using just yarn and, one of our fave materials lately, rope!

One of the things we love most about this runner is that it’s great for brunch parties, dinners with tons of hors d’oeuvres, or just a cozy breakfast for two. Runners give you more flexibility with how you serve if you don’t want to set a full table.

Create a frame for your woven table runner by cutting cardboard to the size you want for your table runner. This could vary depending on the size of your table, but most table runners are around 14 inches by 108 inches.

Make a mark at one inch intervals on both sides of your cardboard. Next, make a 1 inch cut at each of those marks. Then cut a length of yarn to stretch from across the board, holding them in place by pulling them down into the cuts. Don’t pull the yarn too tight and leave plenty of excess on each end (at least 6 inches).

Continue placing lengths of yarn across your entire cardboard frame. Cut a length of rope about 6 inches longer than your cardboard, and weave it through each piece of yarn. It should go over one piece of yarn, and under the next, all the way down the whole length of cardboard.

Cut another length of rope and this time weave it the reverse way of the first one. It should go under the pieces of yarn that the first piece of rope went over, and over the pieces of yarn that the first piece of rope went under. Continue this alternating pattern, occasionally securing the rope lengths to each other with a little dot of hot glue, if needed.

Slide the ropes towards each other as you go so they are fairly tight. Pull yarn through the cuts if you need more slack to keep weaving rope through it. Continuing weaving rope until the whole cardboard is filled. Then pull the yarn ends out from the cuts and tie them into double knots.

Next up, pull the rug off the cardboard and trim the excess yarn ends off. Then flip the table runner upside down and glue the knots to it so they will be hidden. Lastly, trim the rope ends so they are even.

And there you have it, a gorgeous table runner that covers the full spectrum of the color wheel.

You could use any kind of yarn for the accent color on this table runner if rainbow gradients aren’t your jam. The super bright and cheery yarn we used we found at our local Michael’s Arts & Crafts, which had a ton of other great yarn options as well.

Lauren Weems is a stylist and floral designer for wedding, commercial, and editorial photo shoots. When she's not dreaming up ideas for her company Adorned, Lauren is most likely planning her next travel adventure or dinner party.